Unlike earlier tours where I would have been to dozens by
now, this was my first show of the "RED" tour - in fact this is the first time
since the 1/5 tour that I have not been present at the first night - I must be getting
older !!!

As Brannigans is a nightclub that has live music to
entertain its members, it is impossible to tell how many people came specifically to see
T’Pau and how many would have been there in any case but the dance floor in front of
the stage was filled to capacity when T’Pau hit the stage at 9.30 to the sound of the
theme from ‘Thunderbirds’ (I wonder if they considered ‘Captain
Scarlett’ ?). For this reason it was probably fortunate that we were given permission
to stand on the ramped area leading to the roped off VIP section behind the stage as it
allowed us to stand above the heads of those on the dance-floor and have a reasonable
view.

The 92-minute set had all the old favourites plus most of
the tracks from the new album, "Red" (all except for my personal favourite,
"Love Song" L ). A special mention must be made of the fabulous reworking of
"I Will Be With You" which received a soft, ballad-like treatment which
accentuated the emotive lyrics. It sounded excellent when it was played during the
sound-check with just the backing vocals and when Carols voice was added for the actual
performance it was almost perfect !

The lighting was also almost perfect with just the right
blends to accompany the various tempos of the songs. If I had to find any fault it would
be that the glitterball effect used for China suddenly started mid-verse which made it
look like an afterthought although the stunning effect that it had of throwing the entire
area into darkness with floating pins of light outweighed that considerably.

It was good to see that the ordeal of the arrival of baby
Scarlett has not affected Carol vocally and she was as fabulous as ever !! Jez, Dave &
Dan seemed to be more relaxed than they were on the last tour which has resulted in a
vastly improved accompaniment to the voice of Ms Decker - in fact I would go as far as to
say that Jez made almost as good a job of his solo-sections as the great Dean Howard
himself would have!!

Judging by the brisk trading at the merchandise counter
(T-Shirts and posters along with copies of the new album and a few final copies of
"H&S’97") after the show it appeared that the rest of the audience were
also impressed by the performance. There was also quite a long queue for Carol to sign
things although, as always, she had time for a quick friendly chat to us all.